MANILA — Manila will host a series of major ASEAN diplomatic meetings from July 18 to 24, including the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC).
DFA spokesperson for ASEAN Affairs Dax Imperial said all ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to attend, with Myanmar represented instead by its permanent secretary.
Also invited to the gathering are the foreign ministers of Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, and the European Union.
The week-long agenda includes an informal consultation with Myanmar regarding the implementation of ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, the AMM-Post Ministerial Conferences with dialogue partners, meetings under the ASEAN Plus Three framework involving China, Japan, and South Korea, as well as a high-level ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) session.
Commemorative events for the TAC’s 50th anniversary will also be held during the gathering.
The ARF, which focuses on regional security dialogue and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, consists of 27 participating states. These include ASEAN members, dialogue partners such as Canada, Russia, and the United States, and other participating countries including Bangladesh, North Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea.
Imperial said the DFA is still waiting for confirmation from several foreign ministers and official delegations.
He noted that there is currently no confirmation on the attendance of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The ASEAN bloc is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
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